1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to improved data processing systems and in particular to an improved method and apparatus for manipulating documents which exist in a multi-document relationship. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for limiting manipulation of documents which exist in a multi-document relationship in accordance with a plurality of user selected preferences.
2. Description of the Related Art
The modern electronic office has resulted in the grouping of electronic documents into relationships which are intended to aid in electronically storing, searching and retrieving of such documents. The utilization of document libraries represents one technique for meeting this need of the modern electronic office. As currently implemented, document libraries offer functions analogous to manual filing and retrieving of paper documents, but in a far less cumbersome manner. One prior art structure which meets the need for electronically storing, searching and retrieving documents is the Document Interchange Architecture (DIA) which is part of an office system marketed by the International Business Machines Corporation. The Document Interchange Architecture (DIA) document structure provides a set of descriptors for each document filed in a library. These descriptors are placed in document profiles and are filed with the documents. The document profiles preferably contain parameters which identify the content of the document, such as the name under which it is filed, the authors, the subject of the document and the date the document was filed in the document library.
These document profiles may be used for searching for documents in a library. For example, a user may specify a search requesting all documents about a particular subject, by a selected author, or that were received by the library between two selected dates. Upon completing the search, a user would be given a list of all documents which met the criteria utilized by the search. A user or end user, as specified herein, may be a person, device, program or computer system which utilizes the library for data processing and information exchange. Further, the term "document" shall mean any collection of data which may be processed or manipulated.
In addition to receiving documents based on specific search criteria, the DIA document library service provides for the formation of relationships between documents.
One example of such a multi-document relationship is the concept of folder documents. A folder document is created when a user groups documents together into a linear or hierarchical structure. Documents assume a linear structure when they are organized by placing a set of documents in a user specified position within a particular folder. Document may assume a hierarchical structure by nesting documents that are folders, or more simply, by putting a document that is itself a folder into another document that is a folder.
Each document in a folder, regardless of its relationship with other documents, has separate document definitions including descriptors, access control and document content information. Therefore, access to one document contained within a particular relationship implies nothing with respect to access to other documents within that same multi-document relationship. All documents in a DIA document library have a Library Model Object (LMO) called the Document Relation Object (DRO), associated with those documents which describes the document relationships. Therefore, when there is a need to access a folder, each Document Relation Object for each document in a folder must be accessed to determine the complete relationship between documents.
Another example of a multi-document relationship which is permitted in the DIA library structure is the staple relationship. A staple relationship allows a user to attach two documents together. Staple relationships provide a tightly bound, directed, one-to-one document relationship between documents. In addition, stapled documents may be placed within a folder document. The Document Relation Object for each of the documents as previously described for folder documents, must describe the relationship between the staple documents as well as the relationship between the folder documents. Thus, each document within a multi-document relationship contains its own particular attributes such as language, document type, character sets, and other profile information which describes the characteristics of the document itself. For example, if all documents in a multi-document relationship were composed in French, each document would have profile information specifying that the document was in French.
Mechanisms which exist in the prior art treat a multi-document relationship as a single entity and any user assigned preference which may be applied to the multi-document relationship is assigned to the relationship document as a whole. Thus, the prior art does not permit individual documents within a multi-document relationship to be manipulated (i.e., transmitted, copied, or purged) in accordance with user selected preferences which are applicable to that document alone. Therefore, it should be apparent that a need exists for a method and apparatus which permits individual documents within a multi-document relationship to be manipulated in a manner which is limited by user specified preferences for each individual document.